When receiving an analog signal, such as a quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) signal, a digital system typically incorporates an analog-to-digital converter to digitize the input analog signal. For example, the analog-to-digital converter can convert samples of the input analog signal to multibit digital format, such as, for example, 10-bit two's complement format. When performing this analog-to-digital conversion, it is preferable for the input analog signal to have peak amplitudes which cover most of the input dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converter. If the signal swings beyond the dynamic range, saturation will occur, resulting in a loss of information. Conversely, if the signal swing is significantly below the limits of the dynamic range of the converter, the quantization error will increase, resulting in less information to be digitally processed. Thus, the desire of a coarse automatic gain control (AGC) unit is to keep the analog-to-digital converter's input signal near a desired level.